from the no-matter-how-many-bullets-you-put-in-it-keeps-coming-back dept.
Copilot now has its own virtual character for its voice mode:
It's been nearly 30 years since Microsoft's Office assistant, Clippy, first graced our screens as an annoying paperclip. After the Groucho-browed interruptions of Clippy came to an end in 2001 with Office XP, Microsoft tried to revive the spirit of an assistant with Cortana on Windows Phone. The technology still wasn't quite there a decade ago, but now Microsoft is ready to try again with Mico, a new character for Copilot's voice mode.
"Clippy walked so that we could run," jokes Jacob Andreou, corporate VP of product and growth at Microsoft AI, in an interview with The Verge. Microsoft has been testing Mico (rhymes with "pico") for a few months now, as a virtual character that responds with real-time expressions when you talk to it. Mico is now being turned on by default in Copilot's voice mode, where you'll also have the option to turn the bouncing orb off.
"You can see it, it reacts as you speak to it, and if you talk about something sad you'll see its facial expressions react almost immediately," explains Andreou. "All the technology fades into the background, and you just start talking to this cute orb and build this connection with it."
Mico will only be available in the US at launch, and this new Copilot virtual character will also rely on a new memory feature inside Copilot to be able to surface facts it has learned about you and the things you're working on.
Microsoft is also adding a Learn Live mode to Mico that will turn the character into a Socratic tutor that "guides you through concepts instead of just giving answers." It even uses interactive whiteboards and visual cues, and looks like it's targeted at students preparing for finals or anyone trying to practice a new language.
[...] Mico also forms a key part of Microsoft's new initiative to get people to talk to their computers. The software maker is running ads on TV marketing the latest Windows 11 PCs as "the computer you can talk to." Microsoft tried to convince people to use Cortana on Windows 10 PCs a decade ago, and that effort ended in the Cortana app being shut down on Windows 11 a couple of years ago.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Saturday October 25, @10:24PM (17 children)
I do not talk to computers unless I am YELLING at them.
They are tools. There is no need to anthropomorphize them.
Only drooling idiots would want this shit.... It's going to be popular isn't it?
Kill me.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday October 25, @10:42PM (7 children)
They do, unfortunately, and for the same reason smartphones have replaced general-purpose computing to the point that Gen Z needs remedial "this is how a filesystem works" classes to function on a PC these days.
People are stupid. General purpose computing is "hard." Yes, made harder by enshittification, and we have to consider that the stupidity/enshittification dynamic is a self-catalyzing loop, but general computing is absolutely beyond the reach of the average American. They wanted "TV but better" and they've largely gotten it.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aafcac on Saturday October 25, @10:51PM (3 children)
It's deeply troubling how younger boomers and gen-xers are likely to be the best at tech. Millenials and Gen Z really should have been better.
(Score: 5, Funny) by looorg on Saturday October 25, @11:23PM
They can't claim we didn't leave them ample opportunities. They could have stood on the shoulders of the previous generation. Instead they decided that they wanted cat videos of mass-surveillance.
That said an AI fueled Clippy voice assistant, I'm still going to call it Clippy. No matter whatever name Microsoft claims it is. What could possibly go wrong. I predict hijinks. I'm just waiting for it to step into the modern minefield and start to talk about final solutions or going down the same path as Tay. Have you heard about any good Austrian painters ...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday October 27, @03:29AM (1 child)
Gen-X and Boomers both learned computers back when you actually had to have brain cells to use the systems. DOS, OS2, UNIX/BSD didn't hand hold and nanny computer users. The Users could think for themselves about how they wanted their hardware/software configured and used.
Now Windows, MAC, Android, Ubuntu and the other current highly packaged OSs take away so much of the User's rights and controls that the Mills and Z'rs have been trained pretty much form birth that they can't do anything about what their computers can do and just have to bend over and spread their cheeks for whatever Microsoft, Apple, Red Hat, Canonical, and others want to give them. Without lube or a reach around.
MS bringing back Clippy from the dead is just one more reason I'm glad I switched over to Linux back when Windwos 98 came out.
If I'm going to have an "AI" avatar show up on my desktop it had better look like Y'shtola or Fran, to Hells with something that looks like a blob of phlem.
/rant
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday October 27, @03:44PM
We didn't just learn them when they were less hand-holdy, but the older folks of those generations were key to the things existing at all. The irony of sorts here is that with how easy it is to create a VM at home to use for learning to do things without impacting your broader software environment that the UI is still being dumbed down. Just yesterday I was struggling mightily to get n8n set up in a VM because most of the instructions on the net are just flat out broken due to just how poorly thought out the installation process for both npm and docker are. I did manage it eventually, but it wasn't possible to install on Linux Mint without downloading stuff that isn't in the default repositories. I wound up completely wiping the VM like 5 or 6 times before I found instructions that actually worked.
Which is something that is rather frustrating. On the one hand, there is a bunch of extremely dumbed down software and on the other there's stuff like docker that are unnecessarily annoying to install just to install something that could just as easily be run in a sandbox that only sandboxes the process, doesn't insist on handling a bunch of other stuff as well.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday October 26, @07:29PM (2 children)
How does the Google Drive filesystem work?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 27, @01:38AM
> How does the Google Drive filesystem work?
Beats me. When I use Gmail, sometimes things wind up in Drive. Then I find the icon and open Drive to delete them. Things that I'm interested in saving get downloaded to my computer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aafcac on Monday October 27, @03:48PM
TBH, no clue, but I've been moving away from using that at all and to just using Tailscale and mounting things from a home computer from wherever it is that I'm located. I probably could set things up to just handle it all myself, but with my IP at home changing, it would require switching which specific companies I'm trusting to not be haxxored or engaging in shenanigans.
The files that I need on a day to day basis on short term notice are easy enough to keep synced between both computers anyways.
(Score: 5, Funny) by corey on Saturday October 25, @11:21PM (6 children)
This actually reminds me of Star Trek IV The Return Home. Where they go back in time and in a scene, Scotty tries to talk to the computer, which doesn’t work so he picks up turn mouse and talks into that.
Honestly, this is another time where Microsoft invents something to foist onto users, without it being something they actually want or requested. I predict it’ll be a flop, like clippy, because most users are trying to get something done (work, writing, web browsing, video editing etc), and to have some talking orb bullshit is going to annoy just about everyone. Even if it’s cute and reacts.
> "You can see it, it reacts as you speak to it, and if you talk about something sad you'll see its facial expressions react almost immediately," explains Andreou. "All the technology fades into the background, and you just start talking to this cute orb and build this connection with it."
How does this align with what I said above re people using their PCs for a functional purpose? None.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by lonehighway on Sunday October 26, @04:20PM (2 children)
The thing that cracked me up in that scene was when talking to the mouse didn’t work he started typing 90 WPM on a QWERTY keyboard which he would have never seen in his life. Not to mention the software was unlikely to recognize whatever complex formula he was typing.
(Score: 2) by corey on Sunday October 26, @07:47PM
True. That’s the point where I think, well, it’s just a movie. 😀 Most movies seem to be in an alternate reality which doesn’t have Windows, where computers are way more useful and quick to interact with.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Sunday October 26, @08:07PM
Yeah it's still completely awesome though! That movie is a lot of fun.
"rancid randy has a dialogue with herself[...] Somebody help him!" -- Anonymous Coward.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Sunday October 26, @08:04PM (2 children)
Yep I thought of that too. This is at least the third time Star Trek IV and V have been mentioned in the comments in the past three months. I really must rewatch all the films soon.
"rancid randy has a dialogue with herself[...] Somebody help him!" -- Anonymous Coward.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Ingar on Monday October 27, @06:55AM (1 child)
There's no need to watch Star Trek V.
Love is a three-edged sword: heart, soul, and reality.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday October 27, @10:36AM
We discussed [soylentnews.org] that here [soylentnews.org] and decided it is not all that bad and has some interesting ideas.
"rancid randy has a dialogue with herself[...] Somebody help him!" -- Anonymous Coward.
(Score: 4, Touché) by mcgrew on Saturday October 25, @11:30PM (1 child)
Why does Microsoft hate its users so fiercely? What did we ever do to them??
What did you expect when you voted for a convicted felon, peace and rainbows?
(Score: 5, Touché) by fliptop on Saturday October 25, @11:40PM
Willingly gave them our souls. Face it, we deserve Microsoft's BS.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 26, @12:32AM (2 children)
He is not like any of these AI things. He might be a little annoying, but Clippy just wants to help.
And Tay would have looked a whole lot sharper than that blob, in her black and silver Hugo Boss suit...
(Score: 3, Touché) by ikanreed on Sunday October 26, @03:22AM (1 child)
Be more respectful to the cumwad, please
(Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday October 26, @11:06AM
Maybe after use. In idle, i thought it had the shape of a penis enlargement pill.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Sunday October 26, @07:52PM (1 child)
Will it at least identify the voice? Or could any passer-by tell it to do anything?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by acid andy on Sunday October 26, @08:10PM
It honestly wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it is yes to both of those questions.
"rancid randy has a dialogue with herself[...] Somebody help him!" -- Anonymous Coward.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Sunday October 26, @07:58PM (2 children)
Citizen 0079344168, I notice you are less than delighted to witness the momentous occasion of Dear Leader's 99th birthday. Your friendly robot chaperone will now escort you to the nearest re-education center. Goodbye. Have a nice day!
"rancid randy has a dialogue with herself[...] Somebody help him!" -- Anonymous Coward.
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Sunday October 26, @08:08PM
I feel that I should moderate this as "Funny", but it is too close to the truth and therefore most certainly not funny.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Sunday October 26, @10:04PM
(Score: 3, Funny) by AlwaysNever on Sunday October 26, @08:43PM (2 children)
This non-stop tsunami of shit that Microsoft is bombarding its users with, is job security in spades for the ancillary industry of IT Support Services.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 27, @01:42AM
> job security in spades
Job security is not the same as job satisfaction.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aafcac on Monday October 27, @03:50PM
Just wait for next year, they're planning on bringing BonziBuddy back, and somehow it will be even harder to uninstall.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28, @04:21AM
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Microsoft_Bob_Logo.png [wikimedia.org]